My plant obsession

Six on Saturday 30-06-2018

So, that was June, and already we are half way through 2018. That went fast! The garden, which was very lush after the rain in the spring, is now looking a bit jaded. Whilst I am watering lots, I can’t keep up with their needs in this relentless hot sunshine. Moan moan moan. Before I spend the day melting in the garden, time for Six on Saturday. Six things, in the garden, on a Saturday. Could be anything. A job to do, a flower, a favourite tool, a funny shaped vegetable, a success, a glorious failure, anything at all. Join in, do!

Here are my Six for this week.

1 – Lychnis arkwrightii. Grown from seed last year, these did nothing much of any interest last summer. In fact I thought they had all died, but I found a few in a pot tray hidden among the raspberries. They were a little dessicated, but I planted them out a month or two back and they seem a bit happier now, flowering away. There is quite a nice contrast between the bright orange-red flowers and the dark green foliage.

2 – Astilbe. I’ve had these for many years. The plants in the sunny border are struggling, I think I will dig them up. The ones on the shady side of the garden though, they’re doing just fine. This one is in full shade in one of the planters in the alley.

3 – Rose ‘Caribbean Dawn’. This patio rose was in the border until earlier this year. I moved it at a sub-optimal time, when it was leafing up. I planted it in a large tub on the patio, a suitable spot for what is actually a patio rose. The plant sulked at being moved, dropping all of its leaves. For a few weeks I was sure I had killed it, but happily it stopped pouting and got on with growing. It is now covered with flowers. I think it has forgiven me.

4 – Digitalis parviflora. I grew these from seed last year, nothing interesting happened. This year, though, they are growing into useful plants. Just one has a flower spike at the moment, but the others will follow soon, I think. This is a perennial foxglove, 4 or 5 years is a typical lifespan, it’s advisable to collect seed in the third year. They are smaller, both in flower and in height, than their biennial cousins. Until just now, when I double-checked, I thought the horti-latin parviflora meant “brown flowered”, which this certainly has. In fact it means “small flowered”. Shows what I know…

5 – Salvia nemerosa x caradonna. Grown from seed this year, one of a few types of salvia I’m trying to grow. The plants are a bit small and scrappy, but have begun to throw up single flower spikes. Assuming they survive the winter, I’m hoping they’ll bulk up a little next year for a better display.

6 – Rose ‘Golden Ladder’. I bought this last year but only got around to planting it early this year. Like last week’s ‘Oh Wow!’, this is intended to climb up the wisteria trellis. I had in mind a nice purple/yellow combination, but they both need to grow on quite a bit before they intertwine sufficiently to achieve that effect. In the meantime I can enjoy the flowers in their lonesome yellow.

Those are my Six, what are yours? I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of sunny pictures in people’s Six posts this week. Join in, you know you want to! Just write your post, twit your tweet, insta your gram, face your book, whatever, then pop a link into the comments below. If you also add a link back to my blog in yours, that would be fabulous.

Have a fantastic sunny weekend, stay safe, and don’t forget to check back in over the next day or two as more links are added.

Looks like Astilbe is in style! Your comments on seed-grown perennials is giving me hope. My plants from last year are coming back after I had written them off. I actually love the surprise!

If you are languishing in the heat, feel free to send some sunshine my way – my many veggies are stalled and my corn is most definitely not going to be “knee-high by fourth-of-July” as I’ve been told is ideal.

Lovely plants and lovely pictures. I can reassure you about Salvia ‘Caradonna’. Mine, newly planted, were very scrappy for a year. But, they brazened it through this winter with no trouble, and even the heatwave hasn’t wilted them. They are now substantial and striking plants in the border. Love your roses.
My Six on Saturday are here:https://thepleasuregardener.blog/2018/06/30/six-on-saturday-6/

That’s some stunning colours in your garden this week! A lot of the plants in the garden are starting to flag with the heat, and I’m just thankful that the water trough at the allotment site is quite close to my plot so it’s not too far to carry the watering cans!
Here’s my six of successes and failures this week http://allotmenteering.co.uk/?p=265 🙂

Those great spots of color will see you through the heat of summer! Im excited to read the contributions later this weekend. Family’s in town and we’re exploring so much that I don’t have time to post this week.

We had cloud for about an hour this morning, it was such a relief. Gone now. I’ve a tray of 20 little plants of Digitalis parviflora needing planting and nowhere very suitable for them to go. Pot them on and buy time I guess. https://wp.me/p6bCCa-1zY

Hola from sunny (at last!) Spain. Great Six, such interesting plants which have me adding to my wish list once again.Love that digitalis parviflora, so different even if it has a brown thing going! Very busy with visiting family here but I’ve managed to squeeze in a quick Six.

Just read your post and wanted to day what a beautiful part of the world you live in. Was delighted to read about your tillandsia. I’ve read that you can tie them onto bark so I’m going to try tying some onto the hairy trunk of my Trachycarpus Fortunei in my greenhouse…

Thank you, Katharine! It is truly beautiful, especially when the sun shines and definitely a great growing climate. I have to confess I knew nothing about tillandsia, tying them onto bark sounds fascinating. I have two good-sized balls here so it would be interesting to try something a bit different.

I’m loving that lychnis – never seen that one before, but love just about all the lychnis I’ve seen. You do have great colour in you garden right now. The roses are fab as roses always are & the astilbe . . . I do so love astilbe, too. But its your foxglove saga that’s kept me interested since last year. These perennial ones are certainly tempting . . . but not this year.

Funny isn’t it that even ‘old’ gardeners still manage to plant things in the wrong place. You would think we’d learn. I’m getting fed up of the same old, same old plants and want to inject a bit of interest in my garden. Trouble is with all this climate change stuff it is difficult to know what to plant! Just when I had decided that bog plants were suited to my soil, here we have a hot, sunny and dry month! Thanks for showing the Digitalis parviflora – I think I took a photo of one growing wild in the lane on Thursday. It looks like a foxglove, but not one I have seen before, similar leaves, odd yellow-brown flowers (well what was left of them), but you may well have ID it for me. Do they grow in the wild?

Happy weekend in the garden Prop – sun-lounger with beer in hand I think 🙂

Love the yellow rose. Won’t the Wisteria strangle it? Here’s a link to my Six this week . I think. On my mobile and not sure if it’ll work!!😊
countygardening.wordpress.com/2018/06/30/six-on-saturday/?preview=true

Well the wisteria is mostly up high so I’m hoping the rose will cover the lower section of the trellis then clamber through the wisteria. I figure thesummer prune will of the wisteria will make things a bit less crowded.

Such a wonderful variety of plants and great colours. I do like the lychnis. Great results from your seed growing too. Your are inspiring me to grow more of perennials from seed. Here’s my six https://wp.me/p97pee-gg

A terrific six Mr P. Wow, I really like that Lychnis which resembles a group of little fireworks. And the Salvia nemerosa x caradonna has a lovely flower; I wouldn’t mind one of those in my garden as well. Hope your garden isn’t suffering too much in all that heat I’m hearing about. Here is my six: http://janesmudgeegarden.com/sos-june-30-winter-colour/

The Propagator

I’ve been raising plants from seed for a good few years with some reasonable results. I’ve also dabbled a bit with cuttings with very patchy results. I became a little obsessed with the topic of propagation in 2016 and resolved to improve my success rate and to share what I discovered.
This blog is my assorted ramblings, progress, disasters, setbacks, results and some tips along the way. The focus was initially propagation, which still features heavily but has expanded to cover the veg plot and the general state of the garden. The blog is mostly for my benefit, to keep track of what I've done, and hopefully is also of some interest to other planty obsessives. I post fairly frequently so click below to follow or sign up to receive updates by email. Comments welcome, I will respond to all.